The present invention relates to shelving for refrigerators and the like and more particularly to a simplified shelf.
As is the nature of articles containing liquids which are stored in a refrigerator or freezer, many such articles are spillable and do spill. Such a spill will typically soak into other items or contaminate other foods in the refrigerated compartment. Extensive cleanup efforts are required since the spill will commonly flow down, through the compartment, from shelf to shelf. Therefore, it is desirable to provide containment measures for limiting the area of such a spill. One such measure is a spill-resistant shelf. Such a shelf will contain a spill to the shelf and minimize if not preclude the downward flow of the spill through the compartment.
However, known spill-resistant shelves are commonly assemblies of a number of components as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,541, entitled REFRIGERATOR SHELF AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING and issued on Jun. 19, 1990, to Bussan et al. Therein, a refrigerator shelf is disclosed having a two-piece plastic "picture frame" circumscribing the periphery of a glass plate to provide a spill-resistant refrigerator shelf. For liquid spill resistance, a silicon seal should be provided between the upper frame member and the glass plate, as disclosed by Bussan et al. Thus, the effectiveness of many of the known spill-resistant shelves is dependent upon proper assembly of the shelf's components. Further, the components may require complicated and expensive manufacture.
Another problem common to these shelf structures is that spilled items can seep between the glass plate shelf member and the surrounding frame members where it is virtually impossible to remove or otherwise clean. Thus, an unsanitary condition easily develops when food stuffs become trapped between shelf members and frame members.
These structures also do not typically lend themselves to ready modification or adaptation to a variety of applications or installations. To the contrary, once the components for the shelf assembly are designed and the tooling prepared to produce these components, reconfiguration of the shelf assembly is typically an expensive proposition requiring new tooling to adapt one, another, or all of the components to meet the new configuration.